Trolls
By Jim Dallas
Call me cruel, or simply hacktackular, but I like to shame blog trolls. I call it tough love.
My compassionate readers, please take a moment to laugh at troll "VRWC" in this pandagon comment thread.
Here's how "VRWC" performs the reverse-judo-flip-insert-foot-in-mouth:
1. Post random gobbledy-gook (knuckleheaded Republican talking points; alleged humor) in pandagon comment thread. Never mind that it is off-topic in the extreme.
2. Cry bloody murder when some "liberal" resorts to "ad hominem attacks", as if you actually were making an argument based on facts and logic, and thus we would actually care about rebutting you, but aren't.
(Jimbo's first rule of argumentation: people who aren't really trying to debate you are not entitled to your respect. Make fun of them early and often, or just ignore them if you are suffering from an excess of maturity.)
3. When people actually do try to discuss issues of substance, respond to them in a half-assed way and then throw in more shtuff that has nothing to do with what you are talking about.
4. When the heat really starts coming on, disappear. You have stirred the pot, now you can slurk back to your trollish cave.
Seriously, I am looking forward with much anticipation to a National Geographic channel special on trolls, especially their mating and feeding habits ("And now the female troll will IM the male troll --
Dubyasxylady83: OMG scary Kerry so totally sux donkeyballz!
TailgunnerJoe4Evr: Yeah totally ROFLMAO!"
-- and so on)
UPDATE: Oh darn, if I had just read the last post in this thread, I'd see someone has already summed this up:
The mentality that inspires clowns like VRWC to post off-topic, irrelevant, stereotype-driven blather is the same mentality that creates books like this for children. There's a certain satisfaction many people find in reveling in their own pig-headed ignorance. You can't argue with a moron who isn't even paying attention to what you're actually saying; it's third-grade playground logic. A stubbornly moronic stance can be very powerful because for any logical point thrown at you, all you have to do is shout "Liberals! Sensitive! Cambodia! French!" and a certain percentage of the peanut gallery will be won over. For too much of America, "nyah-nyah-nyah" is what passes for critical thinking. That's what we're up against.
That isn't to say that Republicans or conservatives are generally uncritical idiots, just the ones that spend all day trying to irritate users of left-of-center blogs with non-debate debates and agitprop.
Posted by Jim Dallas at August 16, 2004 12:03 AM
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